The block bounded by 10th, 11th, Fairmount, and Melon Streets in West Poplar has an interesting past, despite its somewhat glum recent history. Once upon a time, the Lorraine Theater stood on this block, created from a combination of an old stable and a private home. The theater was built in 1925, received a face lift and reopened as the Booker Theater in 1941, and ultimately closed in 1956. Like many old cinemas, the building transitioned into a church after it ended its run as an entertainment venue. Also like many old cinemas, the building was eventually demoed. The site has been vacant for years, at least since the mid-1990s.

The site of the old theater isn’t all that’s been vacant on this block. Though you can see that a handful of properties were sitting vacant in 1962, the block maintained most of its built environment at that time. By the late 1990s into the early 2000s, just about everything on the block had been demolished. As recently as 2012, there were exactly 5 buildings occupying this entire square block.

Over the last decade plus, the block has started to see some construction activity. If you look at the aerial view from 2023, you’ll see that ten buildings now sit on this block, with mostly homes, but a mid-size condo project as well. That being said, there is still far more vacancy than there are buildings on this block, and it’s not an especially close contest.

Some more vacancy is set to disappear, with developers getting zoning approval at 1006 Fairmount Ave. for an 18 unit apartment building. While much of Fairmount Avenue is zoned for commercial or multi-family, this pocket is zoned for single family houses; to proceed with this project, the developers needed a variance from the ZBA. This variance was granted, and we don’t imagine this would have been the case without support from the local coordinating RCO (the 14th Community Organization).

The community process resulted in the inclusion of of 9 parking spots in a ground floor garage. We would have preferred no parking and no curb cut, but these sorts of compromises are often part of the deal when negotiating with community groups. Another part of the negotiation was the elimination of a roof deck for the building and its replacement by a shared garden for residents in the rear yard. We can’t say we understand the pushback on the roof deck, but so it goes. Perhaps the community also requested all the brick we see in the renderings, which is certainly a refreshing change of pace from most new development. It’s even included on the back of the building, which is generally unheard of these days.

With this building now set to move forward, it’s reasonable to wonder when we might see the rest of the vacant lots on this block turn over. Most of the remaining lots on the block are owned by City agencies, so one would be right to worry that they will continue to sit vacant for many years to come. Fortunately, most of these lots were part of a 2022 RFP for workforce housing, so it’s pretty likely that we’ll see construction move forward here sooner rather than later. When it does, this block will make a return to full use, which would mark a remarkable transformation in a relatively short period of time.